Greetings, fellow humans. I was thinking yesterday about the lowest-of-the-low budget movies I've watched over the decades and 5 movies in particular came to mind. SUMMER OF '69 (1969). This short, zero-budget production was resurrected from the scrap heap of history by 'Something Weird Video'. A 'Distribpix' presentation. Softcore silliness shot silent with a goofy narrator recording his dialogue in place the actors heading to a studio. Sometimes you can read their lips to see what they're saying so that's sort-of a +plus+, innit? I bought myself a copy of this in 2010 just before SWV stopped selling their wares on tape. The only thing is, however, that I don't remember why I bought this particular title. What was I thinking at the time? ROAD OF DEATH (1973). Another no-budget, filmed-in-Florida movie saved from The Dustbin of Movie History by SWV. Is there a plot? Yeah, but so what. And the house band 'The Joe Banana Thing' is a 'thing' in this flick. Far out, dude! Stars Jack Birch, Carol Connors, Joe Banana and Lea Vivot. And a bunch of thuggish bikers. GARDEN OF THE DEAD (1972). 58 minutes. I timed it because I watched it earlier tonight. It's on a 60-minute videotape. You stuff tape into VCR and movie comes up right away. It ends at 58:23. It's amazing to me this film is so heavily populated despite having nothing in the way of a budget. There's a large cast for such a short and cheap movie. This was apparently shown at the bottom end of a Double-Bill with director John Hayes's other movie "Grave of the Vampire". SATAN'S BLACK WEDDING (1975). This was likely filmed in and around Monterey, California. There are numerous mentions of Monterey throughout this 59-minute movie. Has a very abrupt ending so if you blink you'll miss it and the screen will go to 'The End' and you'll be like "What the heck just happened?". I think the main part of the budget was spent on buckets of 'stage blood'! CRYPT OF DARK SECRETS (1976). If you thought "Mardi Gras Massacre", the 1978 horror opus, was cheap well, shucks, this is cheaper! Same director, though. A fella named 'Jack Weis'. Filmed in and around New Orleans, LA. The meagre "special effects" are from the bargain bin at K-Mart. Something Weird Video un-earthed this 'Crypt' from the Movie Graveyard. Good Gosh. And I bought myself a new copy for $10. So those are some ultra-cheap movies I've seen. What bargain-basement budgeted movies have you seen?
I've seen a bunch of low-budget fodder on Mystery Science Theater 3000, but otherwise I can't recall anything. However, I probably did rent some back in the old VHS days, and just forgot all about them. If the box looked deceptively good
I've seen Andy Warhol films like My Hustler and Beauty no.1 which can't have cost much, as they consist of long unmoving camera shots with people talking.
Vampire Trauler Park - 1991 I actually watched this because I knew one of the actors, Robin Shurtz. I met him when he taught English at my junior high school and was a writer for the same music paper I ended up contributing to in high school. Shurtz had a cable access "horror host" TV show called "Dr. X's Cinemondo" where, naturally, this was shown.
So many, but I think some of the lowest budgets were: El Mariachi (according to IMDB, it holds a World Record for the lowest budget film to have earned $1 million at the box office. $7000 initial budget, though more was spent later to make prints and do sound work) The Blair Witch Project (original budget $35,000-60,000, but like El Mariachi, it had additional work done at much higher cost) Manos: The Hands of Fate $19,000 Boardinghouse (shot on video horror) Black Devil Doll From Hell (much more cheaply done than Boardinghouse, yet they have the same budget according to google: $10,000) Things (shot on Super 8, I think. Must be seen to be believed. Amazingly $30,000. They did hire porn star Amber Lynn to do a role as a newscaster! ) Plan 9 From Outer Space, apparently with a budget of $60,000.
The cheapest I really enjoy are Bait (2019) shot entirely on a small 26mm camera by the director and film developed by the director himself. No idea of the cost but clearly cheap. Radio On - late 70's British road movie with a stellar soundtrack featuring Krafterk, Eno, Bowie. They managed to get each track for a flat fee of £50 at the time. Clerks - paid for on a maxed out Kevin Smith credit card. Think it cost $30,000 in total.
I don't know the budgets of any movies. I can assume though about two I think were considered lower budget ones: The World's Greatest Sinner starring Timothy Carey, and Detour.
The origins of the 1970 theatrical movie EQUINOX were from a 1967 student film -- which I thought was better than the re-worked theatrical movie.
Pather Panchali (1955) was only $3000 - maybe my favorite low budget movie of all time. I just watched Funny Ha Ha (2002) by Andrew Bujalski. It says the production budget was $30,000. I saw this movie at an art house theater once - Coming Apart (1969). It says the budget was $60,000 but that seems high! Rip Torn was great though. Coming Apart (film) - Wikipedia Peter Jackson's Bad Taste (1987) was only $25,000 Bad Taste - Wikipedia Primer (2004) was only $7000 Primer (film) - Wikipedia
how about Jackson's Braindead aka Dead Alive... a brutal disgusting movie! lots of laughs...nothing like being chased by a rectum! The movie proved everything it was...: ) an amazing use of a Lawn Mower...
I've seen some local films, one a slasher with a hockey masked killer who talks. It wasn't good, and surely cost near nothing. Otherwise, I own Ray Dennis Steckler's 2 box sets and I swear that something like Las Vegas Serial Killer couldn't have cost much since it is mostly comprised of stock footage. Of films that are shockingly low budgeted for how awesome they look: Carnival of Souls (1962) - $33,000 Kill Baby Kill (1966) - $50,000? Dark Star (1974) - $60,000 Deadly Spawn (1983) - $25,000!!!
I liked COUNTING BULLETS (2021). Set in the 1870s Arizona Territory. At a frontier outpost, a new lieutenant is assigned to lead a patrol, some of whom he's in conflict with, to find out why a group of travelers who departed from the fort never arrived at their destination. His patrol is attacked in the mountains by Comancheros. They must fight to survive. This western evokes the classic cavalry epics of John Ford. The script is excellent. The film is cast well, smartly directed and professionally photographed. It has a cast of about twenty including background extras. It was shot in 11 days in the Galuiro Mountains west of Tombstone, Arizona on a budget of $10,000. Watch it on tubitv dot com and I think amazon. Best western I've seen since Appaloosa (2008).
It's the cheapest we've ever seen in a movie theater. We saw it at a Chicago International Film Festival screening, with the directors for a Q&A afterwards. They shot it all on ends of rolls of film from other productions that they bought at a discount, and they planned each scene for the amount of footage on each roll. They then rehearsed each scene over and over to get the timing down, and each scene in the film was a first and only take.
"It's A Revolution,Mother" would have to be right up there,or is it down there? Released in 1969,directed by Harry Kerwin and featuring Dick Gregory, but narrated by one of my favorite disc jockeys from my youth,Rick Shaw.
